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That is the Angel of the North - Antony Gormley's incredible sculpture

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that stands as one of the icons of modern Britain.

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But angels aren't all like that - at least not in Christian philosophy.

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Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite - and I'm probably mispronouncing that,

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and no, that wasn't the name he went by then -

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was a Christian writer in the fifth and sixth centuries

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and he, along with Thomas Aquinas, settled on the modern Christian hierarchy of angels.

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And my word - if you wanted terrifying creatures you need look no further than angels

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because yes, the ones in the lower orders, they look vaguely humanoid, as the term would be now:

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but up at the top you have the cherubim.

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And they're not cherubs in the sense of angelic little children with serene expressions, no.

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They have four heads - a man, a lion, an eagle and an ox.

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And then you have the thrones - they don't look like that gorgeous thing

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they look like a wheel within a wheel, covered in eyes.

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Seriously, if you wanted terrifying creatures from science fiction, it turns out that you can just go and look at some angels.

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This angel on the other hand is a lot prettier,

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a lot nicer,

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and frankly,

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even though I'm not religious,

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this is a greater testament to God's work than any wheel, within a wheel with eyes on it.

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From the Angel of the North, that is something you might not have known.

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One more thing before I go - thank you very much to everyone who replied to my call for help a couple of days ago

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I got an order of magnitude more answers than I thought I would

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You're all amazing, thank you so much and I'm sorry if I didn't get to your comment - I did the best I could.

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Oh and one more thing - if you want a bonus fact

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There's as much of that angel below the ground as there is above.

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20 meters or so down to the bedrock.

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Otherwise? Well, the wind might just make it fly away.

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[Subtitles by Paul Pollard.
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